The invention relates generally to a vehicle occupant restraint system and, more particularly, to a noise inhibitor for seat belt retractor.
Some seat belt or safety belt retractors as they are often called comprise a metal lockdog or pawl rotationally mounted therein. The pawl often rests upon an inertia member which moves the pawl into engagement with a tooth on a ratchet wheel to prevent protraction of the safety belt webbing during periods of excessive vehicular deceleration. When in the rest position the pawl will often vibrate or rattle causing an annoying noise. U.S. Pat. No. 4,509,706 illustrates the use of a formed wire segment to selectively block and unblock the pawl to prevent vibration. A disadvantage of this device is that the motion of the pawl is somewhat restricted.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved noise inhibitor for a seat belt retractor. Accordingly the invention comprises: a seat belt retractor comprising: a spool rotationally supported on a frame; at least one ratchet wheel rotatable with the spool; safety belt webbing wound about the spool for protraction and retraction; a pawl rotationally supported relative to the frame for lockingly engaging with a tooth on the ratchet wheel, the pawl subject to vibrational movement; a return spring for rotating the spool to retract the webbing; an inertia responsive member to cause the pawl to move into locking engagement with the ratchet wheel, and a noise inhibitor assembly for inhibiting the vibrational movement of the pawl, the assembly comprising: a disk mounted to rotate with the spool; follower means movable into a position of engagement with the pawl upon retraction of the webbing thereby inhibiting vibration and to a position out of engagement with the pawl upon protraction of the webbing.
Many other objects and purposes of the invention will be clear from the following detailed description of the drawings.